Govt reminds depts to check discretionary powers of ministers

Several ministries are yet to put in place measures to check arbitrariness in use of discretionary powers enjoyed by their ministers, over an year after the Centre had issued such a directive.
Irked over delay in finalising ways to check ministers' discretionary powers and putting them in public domain, the Centre has recently sent reminders to all such defaulting ministries.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which acts as a nodal department to coordinate with Union ministries, on April 16, last year had issued a circular to all ministries to carry out an exercise for putting in place regulating parameters for exercise of discretionary powers and making them available in public domain so as to minimise arbitrariness in exercise of such powers.

In its another circular issued in May 2012, DoPT had asked the central government departments to send a copy of such guidelines in case they already existed. In case they did not, DoPT had given them three months time to form the guidelines.
Noting that most of the ministries have not acted on its directive, the Centre had issued reminders on April 1, July 11 and August 7, this year.
"Several reminders have already been issued... However, the requisite information in respect of your Ministry or Department has not been received till date. It is, therefore, requested to kindly expedite the requisite information to this Department urgently," DoPT said in a missive issued on September 23 to all defaulting ministries.

There are more than 50 central government departments.

DoPT's directive had come on a recommendation by a Group of Ministers (GoM) to tackle corruption after examining the proposal related to "relinquishing discretionary powers enjoyed by ministers at the Centre".
The GoM, which was formed on January 6, 2011, was mandated to advise the government on matters including state funding of elections, fast tracking of all cases of public servants accused of corruption, ensuring full transparency in public procurement and contracts and introduction of an open and competitive system of exploiting natural resources.
The government has already done away with discretionary allotment of gas pumps and issue of gas coupons besides discretionary funds at the hands of some ministries like Social Welfare among others.